MEXICO CITY – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador defended on Wednesday his choice of writer Paco Ignacio Taibo II as head of the Economic Culture Fund (FCE), despite a controversial comment made by the writer that the head of state himself described as “unfortunate.”

“I would very much like him to take over at the Economic Culture Fund because he is a great writer and an intellectual of the first order, and Paco Ignacio also has a social dimension,” Lopez Obrador said in a press conference.

Taibo II, who was born in Spain but later acquired Mexican citizenship, caused great controversy at the end of November when referring to the legal reform that will allow his appointment at the head of the public publishing house with a vulgar local phrase that could be translated as “We beat them.”

Although he later apologized, politicians and intellectuals criticized his attitude, temporarily halting the vote on modifying the law that prevents people born outside Mexico from running a public company.

“Paco Ignacio is one of the main promoters of reading in Mexico,” Lopez Obrador said.

“And since he is a man of convictions, he offered an apology and I think he deserves to be the coordinator of the Economic Culture Fund. And I would feel very supported or backed in that matter” with Taibo II in that post, he said.

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